Individuals receive information and entertainment content from a wide variety of media sources. These sources include radio, newspapers, the Internet, and television content providers. To support the creation and distribution of content, providers must derive revenue from the content. Content providers derive substantial revenues from subscription and advertising. During the broadcast of a television program, advertisements, in the form of commercials, are inserted at various time intervals. An advertiser pays the broadcaster to include an advertisement with specific content or types of content.
The amount of money that an advertiser pays is directly related to the number of subscribers watching or accessing a broadcast. Conventionally, for television advertising, advertising revenue equals a rate per thousand viewers multiplied by the number of viewers estimated to be viewing a program. Similarly, web site content providers conventionally charge advertisers a fixed amount per thousand advertising impressions. Therefore, the higher the number of viewers or subscribers accessing content, the greater the revenue provider derives. And the greater the number of subscribers, the more likely it is that a greater number of the subscribers will view a particular advertisement. Therefore, content providers desire to increase the number of subscribers they serve.
Many variables affect the number of subscribers who subscribe to a content provider's service. For example, if a cable television provider is able to offer channels that other competitive providers in the viewing area do not offer, the provider is likely to draw subscribers away from the competitors. Also, if a provider's services are easier to use or include more features or more useful features than the competition, the provider may be able to draw competitors' subscribers. Therefore, providers strive to provide a plurality of services that are attractive to subscribers, especially when compared to the services of the provider's competitors.
One such service is an electronic program guide (EPG) or other similar menu system for accessing content. Conventional EPGs for advanced television systems provide access to new content types and services, such as pay per view (generally, in a digital television application referred to as video on demand (VOD) or near video on demand (NVOD)), movies, games, news reports, as well as product purchases for books and other items.
The EPG is, generally speaking, an electronic multi-level menu, which first presents a list of broad categories from which a subscriber can select. As the subscriber selects from among these broad categories, the EPG presents more discrete categories. The EPG may present categories in various ways using various methods. For example, providers conventionally sort the category lists alphabetically or based on the general popularity of specific categories. Under these approaches, all subscribers receive the same menu in the same order, regardless of their personal preferences.
The lack of customization has been due in part to a lack of technology for accurately tracking a subscriber's preferences. Although methods exist for tracking the historic preferences of small numbers of subscribers, no efficient method exists for accurately tracking a large number of subscribers in real near real time. The lack of customization also stems from the expense and difficulty of customizing individual subscriber's EPGs.
Several conventional approaches allow a subscriber to customize a menu or EPG. The conventional approaches are primarily manual processes on the part of the user to set up an automated or semi-automated update process. A set-top box or other menu presentation device then implements the update of the EPG based on the user settings.
For example, the patent to Peter D. Halenbeck, U.S. Pat. No. 5,038,211, discloses a method and apparatus for displaying only menu options meeting selection criteria set by user. The patent to Theodore S. Rzeszewski, U.S. Pat. No. 5,917,481 discloses a set-top box, which includes a feature to add “select” channels, wherein the user manually configures a plurality of channels, and only those channels appear in the EPG.
A similar approach is used by a TiVo® system, which allows a user to select a category, actors, and other preferences for recording television programming. TiVo can also perform a predictive interest algorithm to record programs you might wish to view based on previous viewing. (TiVo® is a registered trademark of TiVo Inc., Alviso, Calif.). As with other conventional methods, TiVo® requires manual configuration by a user before recording can take place.
Conventional approaches for displaying option lists are simplistic and generic, and fail to attract subscriber and do not allow providers to differentiate themselves from one another. Also, because of the shear volume of content available in any given media, conventional systems and methods generate options lists that are difficult for a subscriber to navigate efficiently. Also, conventional systems and methods require the user to make conscious, deliberate decisions and selections in order to find the product offerings or content that meets their desired interests. Because the conventional process requires that a series of manual steps be followed for any level of customization, the process is more complex than is necessary.
In addition, it is slow and inefficient to update the content availability in current content option lists, and therefore, it is difficult to present a customized list even after the subscriber has performed manual configuration. Conventional systems and methods also fail to take advantage of known content viewing patterns and related behaviors in order to provide alternative or additional product offering lists that may be pre-sorted based on the viewing patterns.